Special pleading
Special pleading is a form of spurious argumentation that avoids details unfavorable to a point of view by alleging a need to apply circumstances or considerations that are relatively immune to investigation. This immunity may take the forms of:
- reference to vocabulary that is owned by a distinct community with sole rights to assess meaning and application
- unexplained claims of exemption from principles commonly thought relevant to the subject matter
- claims to data that are inherently unverifiable, perhaps because too remote or impossible to define clearly
- use of a double standard in making an assertion
- assertion that the opponent lacks the qualifications necessary to comprehend a point of view
- assertion that literally nobody has the qualifications necessary to comprehend a point of view
In the classic distinction among material, psychological, and logical fallacies, 1 special pleading most likely falls within the category of psychological fallacy, as it would seem to relate to "lip service", rationalization, and diversion (abandonment of discussion). The use of special pleading does have logical consequences that can be algebraically mapped.
In philosophy it is assumed that where a distinction is claimed a relevant basis for the distinction should exist and be substantiated. Special pleading is a subversion of this assumption.
Footnotes and external links
- Web sites offering definitions of "special pleading": ,
- 1 This division is found in introductory texts such as Fallacy: The Counterfeit of Argument, W. Ward Fearnside, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1959.
- by Peter Suber.
